The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection received some failing grades on its last report card from federal regulators.

In one category related to data accuracy, the state department received 0 percent.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said state regulators were not accurately entering information into a national database, such as actions linked to violations of the federal Clean Water Act.

The 0 out of 29 grade earned it a 0 percent. The national goal is 80 percent or above. Overall, the percentage of files reviewed with accurate information in the national database was 14 out of 30, or 46 percent. For its administering of the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System, DEP failed to input any of the actions linked to violations at major facilities, according to an EPA report.

EPA conducts reviews of state environmental agencies every four years, and it most recently evaluated Pennsylvania in December 2014.

"[The EPA review] is an overall assessment to ensure fair and consistent enforcement and compliance of federal environmental statutes across the states," said Terri White, a spokeswoman for the federal agency. "Where the State Review Framework identifies deficiencies or areas for improvements in programs, we work cooperatively with a state to make improvements."

In its report of the Pennsylvania evaluation, which dated back to 2009, the EPA found 20 areas that needed improvement, 16 areas that met program requirements, two areas that needed state attention and two areas of good practice.

The agency used years-old statistics because "we had to select a time period where we had consistent data, and 2009-2010 fit that criteria," EPA spokesman Roy Seneca said in an email.

EPA's 2014 review is the most recent study available and was shared online this year. None of the findings were recorded during the Wolf administration.

The current guard at the state Department of Environmental protection is reviewing the recommendations and working to incorporate them, spokesman Neil Shader said in an email.

"DEP knows there are areas in need of improvement and we are working diligently to make changes and increase oversight where needed. Our efforts over the past 9 months prove it," he said.

The state department "is in continuous contact with EPA on the subjects of this report and other areas," Shader said.

Overall, the EPA concluded the state environmental department was not accurately sharing data with federal regulators.

The EPA also found Pennsylvania regulators did not properly identify violations, issue timely and appropriate enforcement action, or show their math when determining penalties for violations.

A recent PennLive investigation detected similar problems in the state environmental department's oversight of the oil and gas industry during the Marcellus Shale boom. The EPA review found problems throughout the entire agency.

One of the areas found to be both a good practice and in need of improvement was the agency's penalty calculations. While the calculations were noted as a good practice in conjunction with the Clean Air Act, federal regulators questioned DEP's math when it came to compliance with the Clean Water Act.

The state environmental department uses the following formula when determining penalties for environmental violations, according to agency records:

However, federal regulators couldn't find any calculations in the state department's enforcement records.

"PADEP staff indicated that penalty calculations are frequently destroyed upon conclusion of the case. This practice does not meet federal or state policy guidelines for developing an appropriate penalty," the EPA report said.

State regulators also told the federal agency the Pennsylvania staff was not trained to determine economic benefit derived from violations and that DEP was not routinely collecting the economic benefit as a component of a penalty.

The state department told the EPA its staff training had been limited due to budget constraints.

Federal regulators found the Pennsylvania environmental department provided accurate National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System inspection and enforcement data to the EPA 46 percent of the time.

Moreover, state regulators failed to enter any information for "actions linked to violations: major facilities."

That could be caused by three circumstances, according to the EPA report. A regional state environmental office might have failed to accurately enter the required data, the data might not have been entered in the appropriate field, or the department might have lacked the resources to perform the required data entry.

The EPA is assigned the task of making sure state environmental agencies are properly implementing federal environmental laws, such as the Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act, Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, and the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System.

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